As part of a multi-year project called “The Girl Studies,” Charlie White photographed teen girls between the ages of 12 and 14 side-by-side with male to female transgender adults. In each image, the paired individuals stand out against a non-descript background, making their similarities in appearance all the more evident. Ultimately, the mini-series is a comparative study of two paths toward womanhood, one biological and the other surgical/chemical in nature.

Photographer and filmmaker Charlie White has had his work exhibited internationally since 1999. Currently, he lives and works in Los Angeles.

“Ultimately, the mini-series is a comparative study of two paths toward womanhood, one biological and the other surgical/chemical in nature.” There is not any way that one can enter womanhood surgically, it is a natural thing, if you are not born a woman and decide to go for a sex change, you do not enter womanhood, you do not have menstruation or any of those things to put you through your womanhood.

Everyone Else

@ Jacques: So a ‘biological’ woman who has some problem, maybe doesn’t have ovaries, can’t have periods, or doesn’t have breasts, or can’t have children would also never become a ‘woman’. Women are born all different ways, and become women all different ways. How about you, and your judgemental definitions, go and take a running jump.

Being a Woman

I am not being judgemental, but making an obvious observation. Things that are mention that a transgender would not have a menustration, ovaries or breast are just some of the outward differences. You will never remember of being in a maternity ward, the feelings of carrying a child in your womb, having post-partum depression, going to your ob/gyn, buying tampons or napkins, having menupause, having small hands or your body frame and bone structures being smaller. If you feel you need surgery, then by all means go for it. But nature has its way of showing us all, that our original birth certificate is who we really are. Best wishes to you.

chloe22

@Jacques: What makes you an authority on the subject? There is more to gender than biology, obviously…

Maggie

Castrated males, pumped full of female hormones. They are not and never will be women.

Sarah Lambert

Thanks so much for your wise, serious and considered analysis Maggie.
I was starting to believe that individuals like this should be treated with the dignity and respect we accord to human beings . Thank God you reached me in time!

Stephanie Moore

All boys should at least try panties. The silky feel will make you so jealous of women. My wife turned me on to women’s clothing and I spend my days with panties on, sometimes hosiery, but always feeling so left out because of my
iínability to wear a dress or skirt. Slip a pair of either and see what silk does to you!

Stink Stinkerson

Lol they get the surgery to look halfway realistic, then they slap those big ole clown lips on there and it just makes them look silly! I don’t know any women with natural clown lips, so why is that the goal?

http://www.pcp.org.au christine

Good idea, however I would like to see the transgender women in their younger years and then as adults. The series implies upon first glance that the young girls are in fact a younger version of the older transgender woman. I found it a let down that it wasn’t but I do see the artists point. All the same, I think it would be a much stronger series if it was the same person barely teen and then adult.

KaraC

@Maggie and @Jacques : Of course you are correct that we missed out on many of the experiences of growing up as an XX female, and there are many things we will never know first-hand. I would like to ask you though, to do a little research – for example use your favorite search engine to look up “transsexual BSTc INAH3 amygdala hippocampus” . There is a growing body of scientific, peer-reviewed papers showing that the brains of MTF transsexuals are identical to those of XX females in the gender dimorphic areas. That is to say, we truly have physically female brains in those regions which appear to determine one’s innate sense of self as female. I am talking about innate gender, not gender expression which arguably has more of a cultural influence. This makes sense, since all our bodies start as female, and masculinize in response to hormone surges during gestation.

A combination of genetics, epigenetics and environment can result in certain brain areas remaining female (or mascilinizing in some women). If they are the areas controlling sexual orientation this can produce a gay or lesbian person, of they are the gender determining areas, it can produce transsexuals. So this is still physical and biological, just not as obvious as external features such as genitalia.

Danielle

Christine,

I think that’s a really good point. I think it’s likely that because this exhibit is a little older, finding models in their adolescense was probably close to impossible. Most people who transition either experience financial and legal roadblocks or don’t have the freedom granted by their families while still a minor that would make beginning transition in their teen years possible. Things are obviously changing, but in the last 13 years, even the last 5 years, the trans community has made huge strides that earlier generations could only dream of. It seems to me that the artist was probably working with what models were available, and in 2000, the bulk of trans women did “grow into womanhood” in adulthood, making this a very accurate protrayal of the moment in time, which is the feature of a lot of great art.

Cristin

It seems as though some of the posters haven’t done any research into gender dysphoria. There is scientific proof that the gender of ones brain can, in fact, be different from the physical sex of ones body. How would you suggest aligning the two? Do you change the brain, which is a violation of the person’s sense of self, or do you change the body, which breaks the male dominated gender stereotypes created by society? While a trans woman doesn’t have female reproductive organs (uterus and ovaries) she does grow natural breasts that are capable of producing milk. Most secondary sex characteristics of any gender are created by the hormones within the body.

Also, if you want to look at history, there are transgender people throughout history. the native american “Two Spirit” were people who were said to have both male and female spirits and were treated as their “Target” gender (ie male-female or female-male) allowing them to form marriages with people of the same physical sex. There are respected third gender populations in several eastern countries. These are truths.

If you want to look at biology, for humans, look into intersex people. These conditions have varying degrees of ambiguous genitalia. If you want to look in the rest of nature, plants are both male and female and sever species can change their sex at need. These are all facts.

The AMA and the APA recognize the existence of gender dysphoria the suggest treatment by both organizations is for Gender Reassignment Surgery (on some level) and to live as the gender of their brain, not their body.

a real trans

@Jacques

Granted your comment is interesting and gives a few views but let me lay down some things i had to go though.
Im a trans girl, im 21 and i started hormones very early in life, not because i wanted to be a women.
but because when i was born i had a interesting birth where i got to much estrogen then test.
when puberty hit, i grew breasts and curves and my voice never dropped.
i went on hormones just to keep that all the same, no one in a crowd can tell me apart froma bio.
But i will say this, gender is not just parts you have.
while you say trans women can never have feelings of carrying a child, and such, your right, but you know what, every day i stare in the mirror and cry because i truly want to carry a baby in my stomach.
i want to give birth, i dont want to adopt, i want that bond you get when the baby grows inside you.
but you know what i cant have it.

but you know what i had to go though, while women complain about periods, i fought cancer at 13.
after surviving that, i now have monthly times where i get cramps down below like women do, i just dont have to deal with bleeding.
i deal with wanting to ether not be fat in area’s. wanting to improve on certain features. I buy make-up and other fem products.

I have been raped when i was in highschool, and i fought peoples teases of my voice when people finally found out i was different my second year of highschool.
I rock my own pair of d-cuped breasts i never had to get surgery for.
and i deal with lots of women problems like norm.
i know nothing more then just being a regular girl…just because i have bits below dosent mean “shit”
i enjoy being a catcher and having a mans grasp around me.

i love holding babies and all that stuff.
my goal in life was to be a mommy and care for a baby.

you know what, i am a fucking women, im more of a women then most out there.
im not speaking for all trans people when i say they deserve womenhood, believe me sometimes i agree with people who say “womenhood is only for biologicals” but what about people who truly dont know anything but being a women?
growing up as one from day one?

people judge trans women a lot, but you know what, they have to struggle a hell of a lot just to try and gain one little thing of respect from people.
that women hood you speak of was by luck it sounds.
a biological luck of the draw inside the womb.
but for those who where not lucky,
like myself
we have to constantly be reminded every time we walk down the street past a baby in a stroller and feel the dreadful heart ache and pain of wanting something so badly that a lot of women take for granted.
women who take such pride in themsevles as soon as something like this comes up.

honestly, if womenhood i about being a judgmental asshole toward people who want nothing more to be like you, to trade places with you in a heart beat.
then gosh darn it, i say fuck womenhood all together, cause honestly if its all about being a bitch and rubbing your vagina in the air that you can give birth and have periods, then seriously i think im a bit stronger in a lot more ways.

but this is just my opinion, just like the rest of you people talking about trans with out having ever taken a walk in their shoes

^w^

peace

p.s
I wont be returning to read feedback on this comment, so bash it all you want, cause sadly its falling on deaf ears like most the ears a lot of people give toward trans people anyways.

sincearly yours.
a trans girl who seriously fucking hates people with small mindedness toward what “womenhood is”

Seralyn Campbell

Dear naysayers,
Your inability to understand Transsexualism is because you not only unsympathetic and ignorant of what these people go through, but more importantly because you’re CISGENDERED. Look it up. These people aren’t making snap decisions to change their sex because it would be fun, but because they feel like women on the inside, just like biological women most often do, but have the unfortunate situation of male bodies at birth.

@Jacques- Your bigotous comment barely warrants a response, which “Everyone Else” already said better than I could.
@Being a Woman- Firstly, I appreciate your non-hateful tone, but being a woman is not defined by motherhood. That’s just one potential life path which not all women take, appreciate, and in some cases have the ability to do. Transsexual women DO develop breasts(they look and feel just like a biological woman’s breasts). There are many biological women which are born without ovaries or have malfunctioning ovaries and sexual organs. Are these women also not “women” in your book? Transsexual women who undergo sexual reassignment surgery do have to make trips to the ob/gyn just like biological women. Just to clear up a few facts.
@Maggie- Maggie, dear, castration and sexual reassignment surgery are vastly different procedures. Please do you homework. And transsexual women have no higher amounts of estrogen than biological women do. So assuming you’re a biological woman, by your own definition, you too are “pumped full of hormones”. Are women that have a hard time with menopause and are prescribed estrogen by their doctors not also “pumped full of hormones” by that definition?
@Stink- It’s not the goal for most people, Stink. I can see what I believe to be evidence of one or two of these women having lip surgeries, but there are a fair amount of people born with lips that are bigger and puffier-looking than others; take a look around! Most TS women I’ve known don’t get facial surgeries of any kind.

I agree with you Christine. I think this piece would be more fun if it showed the TS women at the same age as the girls as well.

zipzip

Genetic women always use the same arguments. First of all, there are many, many ugly genetic women out there who look like men. Transsexuals can’t have children? Who cares? As if life was subordinated to reproducing like rabbits. If life is all about reproducint, then, women are waste, useless rubbish by the time they are 40 and they hit menopause. There are millions of women who don’t menstruate anymore who have had a hystorectomy or who they are just too old. Nature creates monstruosities, like midgets and deformities. Natural doesn’t equal good. Otherwise, even wearing eye glasses, coloring your hair and using braces is not natural.

zipzip

I want to say to transsexual women to stop being apologetic. Being born a woman or a man is not a merit, so, just stop and look around how many ugly, disgusting genetic women are out there

db

@zipzip nailed it.

Lily

No one is born a woman.

http://zzmku.tumblr.com em/ma

<3<3<3 tough trans bitch here.

all the haters just jealous. they hate our freedom.

that's why I'm declaring a global war on transphobia.

we'll use drone strikes to clear them out of the caves, out of our streets, and out of our schools.

<3<3<3 trans pride worldwide, especially all my sisters.

Sylvia Path

I was born female and I never had children – does this mean I am not a woman? Having your period is not some transformative magical event that makes you female.
When I dyed my hair blonde, I became a blonde and was treated differently. When I had a boob job I became busty I was treated differently.
Subsequently my self image changed.
We all evolve and create ourselves – it’s just a matter of degrees.

Mr. 4th Zoner

Heres a question would a guy thats turned into a girl & can do all & go through all that a girl does, get to go through womenhood?

im asking this question become i made a pill & accidentally turned my best friend into a girl… this happened 2 weeks ago & now hes going around giving BJs to ppl… & he appears to be pregnant….
i can’t believe i used him like a lab rat……& his parents & my parents were pissed at me….. so… got any advice?

craig

The 21st century is upon us. Technology is very advanced and unstoppable. I would ask people to consider how transgenders have been given a new life, one they choose. In the future we will all have much greater choice in our lives. We might one day take a pill and become smarter, more attractive, more charming, loveable, spiritual and kind. Will this make us lesser, immoral people? I think not. We can choose to create a better world for all! God will kindly approve and bless us.

http://www.gamerpoop.com Jacobine

I can’t believe that people actually think that a man who wants to be a woman and goes for a surgery/hormone treatment goes through “womanhood” give me a break. These men are not women just because they choose to be castrated and get breast implants/hormone treatments. Chemicals do not make a woman. You’re either born a man or a woman, if you are born a man and “feel” like a woman then you have a serious mental disorder that needs to be treated. Transgender is just another word for chemical imbalance.

Iindelfin

Womanhood, as referring to sex would be nothing more but biological processes in such a way a born-male could never reproduce. So as far as speaking of being a woman in context of social gender, is completely up for debate. There’s infinite possibilities for expression of gender variance. And on a personal note, religion has shaped many laws in the country I live in, despite having a “separation” of church and sate. Obviously the fear/hate of transfolk has been stemmed by a lot religious-backed social engineering. Personally I believe transfolk should be allowed to “transition” legally and without harassment. However I also believe all public bathrooms should be single-stall and genderless and never have to hear again the debate of “infiltration” of this “sex” into that “sex’s” bathroom/gender based rooms. Which compliments and cultivates sexism.
Let’s be honest here people are not born equally genetically, genetics change throughout one’s life, and if a person doesn’t fit into one’s so-called biological sex what business is it yours to inter-develop other people’s gender and expression? If doctor’s are willing to perform surgeries to allow one sex to look like another they should be allowed to do so, as it ‘often’ significantly improves self-image, and well being of GID sufferers.

Tiredofthe Selfabsorbed

My two cents:

OK, so you are a man but feel like a women. Get some dresses, put on some makeup, frolic around your home or work like a little girl and be happy!

Why spend a small fortune on medical treatments while people starve, then constantly complain about how you’re still miserable? Is there even such thing as a happy tranny? True happiness comes from helping others, not mutilating yourself and staring in the mirror at every opportunity.

We live in a world where deception is standard practice. Becoming a tranny is about as useful as a Kardashian, a Brittany Spears or a Paris Hilton. My advice -engage a hobby, read a book or two, do some volunteer work…

The next time you feel like whining about how your man-boobs are not large enough, consider helping burned children find comfort in their lives, get a pilots license -throw on some heels and fly around the skies;. Enjoy the beauty of the natural world that surrounds you.

Anyhow, you had the surgeries and still feel like crap. Don’t beat yourself up over it. You are a wonderful human being, give others the chance to experience the goodness that is INSIDE of you.

You won’t find comfort in contemplating how many (natural) women out there are uglier than you. I wish you the best and a lifetime of happiness!

Girl

Being a Woman

What about women who don’t have a period because they had to get a full hysto at 27? Women who opt not to have children? Women who can’t have children. Are they not a real woman? Are they truly missing out because they can’t do those things? Personally i’d give my period up in a heart beat, you must have one of those perfect periods for 2 days , no cramps, no hormonal imbalances. I mean who cares if they don’t have a vagina. Maybe they just feel like they were truly born in the wrong body. Before you bring religion or anything up, what about those with both set of privates? What did God want for them? Was that a mistake??? People make fun of them all the time, it’s not “normal”

Tiredofthe Selfabsorbed

Who are you to tell people how to spend their money? If this is case, then lets all not spend our money on the things that make use happy? I mean do you really need the internet? Do you have cable? Do you eat from the $1 everyday to save a penny instead of eating organic or eating out to celebrate? Do you really need more than one pair of shoes? Do you really need cable? I mean what do you want from people? If they want to spend it on themselves to feel whole and complete you are not the one to tell them to spend it on burn victims? Do you donate your leftover money? If so good for you, but can you cut back and spare more? I mean it’s not my place to tell you how to live right? So it’s not yours to tell them either.

Alissa

beautiful! such lovely women in these pics I always wondered what it must be like to be able to change like a butterfly later in life, when you have the brains and the experience to really appreciate it (as opposed to just having it happen when you’re all like derp). It must be so exciting to see what your inner self looks like when it is unveiled into your outer self! Like opening the most special present of your life. <3

http://www.isisimages.com isis

I see that there are some very narrow and closed minded individuals commenting on this post.

Can’t you sympathise for one second of your narrow life and realize that many transgender women WISH they were born with ovaries, menstrual cycles, the ability to get pregnant and so on…?? Don’t you think that they spent most of their lives wishing that they could feel like a normal woman?

Their transformation is their move toward feeling normal… and the least that YOU could do is accept that every person deserves to live the life that feels right and “normal” for them.

Live and let live people!

But in terms of commenting on the photographs… to the photographer, congratulations! You have sparked a conversation and to that I say bravo!

live and let live

Their is a lot in life about acceptance we need to learn. Accept yourself as who you are. As how you came into the world. For me seems a lot to spend a lifetime changing gender, spending thounsands of dollars, what about other things? what about enjoying life? What if there is a reason why you where born man or female? what if in the middle of the ‘trans’ process you reallize that’s not what will make you feel ‘normal’?.is there a way back?

Will you tell the person you are dating that you are trans? or will that just be a secret?

Do you need everyone to accept what you are doing? Don’t you think the other party has the right to not accept transgender as ok?

Our lives are made of decisions we make. But sometimes we make this decisions earlier than we should. i.e. someone that finds her wife cheating on him, in anger, he hits her, later he regrets.

Maybe there are other ways to find meaning in this world that we live in.

Really?

It’s interesting to me that the transgendered individuals want to go off and say that no one can understand what they feel, no one gets it, and then say they really do feel and have the same experiences as a biologically born woman. Apparently, you still have some of that male arrogance to assume that you know how a biologically born woman feels and that you get what our experience is like, and then proceed to try to explain it to the men out there. You are right that it involves more than childbirth and breasts and putting on lipstick. Frequently, it involves dealing with assholes who want to negate your self-expression by speaking for you. While I know I don’t understand what it’s like to be trangendered, I doubt you know what it’s like to really be a naturally born woman, so stop claiming you do. It’s insulting.

LGBT

Women are always shown to be oh so sweet, and just perfect, when really they’re just vicious animals tearing other spirits into tatters. So a trans person wanted to be who they feel like they are. Is that such a bad thing? I bet at least 60% of you have been told, or told someone else, that it’s what’s on the inside that counts, not the outside. A man that looks is more slender and ‘prettier’ than most men, we find hot. Trans just take it one step further, becoming women. I bet you that they deal with at least 50% more hardship than biological women do. They deal with all the insults and all the hate and disgust thrown their way, all because they wanted to be happy. Don’t we all. Deserve at least one shot at happiness?

Mayor of Realityville

Everyone Else @ Jacques: “So a ‘biological’ woman who has some problem, maybe doesn’t have ovaries, can’t have periods, or doesn’t have breasts, or can’t have children would also never become a ‘woman’. ”

Nice strawmen you put up there; but it’s kind of stupid, because nobody has said that, and your analogy is flawed.

If a car loses two wheels, we all still call it a car, because that is obviously what it is; it is not referred to as a motorcycle. Conversely, adding a side car, even one with two wheels, to a motorcycle does not make it a car.

Similarly, putting Ferrari look-alike body panels on a Pontiac Fiero, does not give you a Ferrari. You can’t register it as one, and if you attempt to sell it as a Ferrari, you will be committing fraud.

Mayor of Realityville

Stink Stinkerson: “Lol they get the surgery to look halfway realistic, then they slap those big ole clown lips on there and it just makes them look silly! I don’t know any women with natural clown lips, so why is that the goal?”

LOL, I also can’t help but notice that the trannies in the first, fourth and fifth sets of picture have shoulders much much wider than the those of the corresponding girls. Way for the artist to undermine their own concept.

Jill Davidson

@Really: I as a trans woman would never say I know what it’s like to be a woman assigned female at birth. I don’t know what it’s like to a man, either, or to be another trans person. I only know my own experience. That “feel like a woman trapped in a man’s body” meme goes back to journalists first reporting on Christine Jorgensen in 1952. It’s a shorthand explanation why someone might be transitioning, but it’s widely misunderstood, and doesn’t work as a shorthand explanation.

@Tiredof the Selfabsobed: There are indeed happy trans people – I am one of them, and I know many others. It’s odd that somehow you think trans people don’t make charitable contributions, read books, or have hobbies. No one is going to report a headline like: “trans woman enjoys reading novels”. We have lives that in many ways mirror lives of cis-gender. Many of us don’t spend “thousands of dollars” on surgery. Being a woman indeed takes more than wearing dresses, or putting on lipstick. I’ve worn dresses twice in the last year. Much of our transition has to involve “head work” – thinking/planning the things that will help us more easily blend; becoming more safety conscious and safety skilled; changing our voices; deciding what kind of woman we are; learning additional social skills.
You imply that trans people are deceptive. Many of us live “out” lives where our long time circles of friends and colleagues know our history. There is no reason to tell new friends or customers our gender history. If we are dating, there are rules about when to disclose (in a safe space with other people not far, and disclose if a relationship is heading towards intimacy).

Jill Davidson

@Jacobin: No one is born a man, although they might be born a boy or be born male. One only becomes a man with growing up. That growing up requires a long transition period, where a boy learns appropriate social skills, begins to understand who he is, learns how to be safe and responsible in a violent world.

Trans people also need a relatively long transition to learn new skills and figure out what kind of man or woman they will be. Many of us don’t do this transition until we are already adults. We have better capacities to plan and reflect, and a more extensive repertoire of role models. But it’s also lonelier, as we are not surrounded by our same age convoy of peers, and often don’t have parents by the time to coach us.

http://N/A A noney mouse

Except for one issue Mayor. Your argument is also a bit flawed.

You make the comparison of cars… all of these are man made objects, and as such you can’t have one become the other as a result of name brand, laws etc.

However if you wanted to take the time, money, plans, and no legal restraints. One could strip the fiero down, adjust the frame, modify the body, wiring, engines, etc to eventually arrive at a car which is shaped and runs similar (or even better than a Ferrari if the person doing this has the resources and is good enough) to a Ferrari. The only thing it could not legally have due to trademark issues is the Ferrari name.

That being said, hormones at a young age do essentially do this. See the human body, from conception, up until a few months is female by default. The only thing which alters this path is the receptivity to Testosterone. (usually denoted by the presence or absence of the Y chromosome) Now while this is a bit off topic… CAIS and other mutations can result in XY females. And more recent research points towards less severe forms which only affect the physiology of the brain and other minor characteristics. But again I’m off topic.

The point is that you refer to the building of the body. Again the body is initially conceived female… and then through the presence of the X or Y path will follow the path towards making a male or female body. However, at this point a male or female body aside from now dormant sexual organs will develop along the same pathway until puberty. At which point the only reason why the noticeable characteristics begin to become distinguishable is due to the presence of hormones which push the body in one direction or another. Now, assuming have someone who identifies as female and who at this point uses medical intervention to develop their body along a different course due to a different concentration of hormones. How does this make a person artificial?

Is it because they used man-devised means to avoid a developmental pathway that their genes denoted? And if so, would a person be considered artificial if they took advantage of gene therapy (what little we can do of it so far?) to avoid dying a death or debilitating condition that they might have otherwise faced? Or perhaps, had medical intervention by way of surgically removing the breasts due to the fact that their genetics indicated that they will have most likely succumbed to cancer?

Now you may say it’s not the same. But it is, when people do undergo this therapy, they are undergoing a change that is a result of a pre-existing condition. See, studies have indicated that there are physiological differences in the brain of trans* individuals which may affect their understanding of their gender, differences which are present form birth and which occur while the baby is maturing in the womb.

That being said, we do not have the ability to re-arrange the physiology of the brain or “cure” this disorder because we know far too little to even imagine doing something this complex. What has been indicated though, that further hormone exposure to that which should go with the biological sex has not fixed this. (given that some of these studies used individuals who had identified trans* but opted to live a cis-gendered life without hormone replacement therapy who where still found to have brains physiologically similar to those of their perceived gender) Also deviating from the point… it w as also shown that aversion therapy, shock therapy, and lobotomization also didn’t really do much to “cure” an individual. THUS, we have instead found it easier to correct the rest of the body because we have the technology to do this.

Now it may be seen as a drastic step. But it’s one that people deem necessary to live a better quality of life. Just as some predisposed to cancers may have their breasts, stomach, or even portions of their intestines removed for a chance at a better quality of life.

That being said, I suppose in a long and convoluted way I’ve been trying to say this. What is it that matters to you? The purely biological sex? Or the sex of the individual… ie the sex of the brain? Because they don’t always match. That being said, one would be hard pressed to say that brain is less important that the body which it is a part of.

Some Random Tranny

Well this post has made me feel… Questioned. That’s all I got. @a noney mouse you have a good, REALLY GOOD comeback that makes me wanna root for who seems like the underdog until they use the uppercut. I mean really, what would it take to get peace? I mean this topic doesn’t need fighting, politics and money and stocks need some arguing. I mean that’s my take on that… I don’t say these words strongly cause I actually stay out of politics an stuff and I’m fresh outa money… But yeah.

http://na jessica john

Hiya everyone my name is Jessica and I am 23 years old born in a wrong body women who is transtioning to become real me but anyways some gw and said that a transgender women doesn’t know that what’s it feel like to be a woman well sweet heart my heart crys wen I hear the news of women getting raped beaten by thier partners killed or sold for money but anywYs feel like women doesn’t mean that I to think what my gona wear or how am.I gone look its about feeling that comes from many people in this the god creates have so many issues and problem does that mean we are not human I don’t think so and as far as transgender women are concerned we might not be able give birth or have periods or use tampons but that doesn’t mean that we are not a real woman we are woman whom.created in wrong body to later in life to be in our right form god knows that I am woman and as far as your comments go I come to the point where I think that you so called cisgender women you have no idea what’s it feel like a woman because women doesn’t insult anyone or say something because its not in our thinking and I personally would always defend my cisgender or transgender women I hope I didn’t offend u in any way bye luv Jessica

arby muller

Hey Jacques- Everyone is entitled to an opinion, including you, without having to take a running jump. A little more measured response might be considered as your sort of tripe really doesn’t take the discussion firward, hein?

Moldy Peach

The sex you are born with is biologically determined. However, gender is socially constructed. Meaning that despite the fact that you are born as a person of the female sex, you may identify yourself to the gender role socially defined as being the one of an individual of the male sex. When that happens, you may not care and simply act the way you desire, disregarding gender roles or you may feel so out of touch with the body you were born in that you feel obliged to change your sex. It is really simple. And this is not a modern phenomena. There have been gender studies done with tribes from Alaska which have shown that they have legends about men whom take on the lifestyle generally taken on by women and are addressed by “god” as women.
People, please, there are subjects such as anthropology which have investigated about gender roles. There are public libraries. Before you start discriminating and making uninformed posts, go read. It is shameful that in an era where there is so much information ignorance still rules.
Ps: Having a period doesn’t make you a woman. Being born a woman does not make you a woman. This because what a woman is and isn’t changes, depending on the place and time you are born in ok?

Gabriel

Embrace all that is Human ~ We are beautiful and diverse and unlimited. The notions of what ‘woman’ and ‘man’ represent are constructed ~ and in turn, can be re-constructed, deconstructed and transformed ~ “There are so many different ways to be beautiful” (MC) Great project !

testsubject

Yeah the surgery doesnt make you a “real woman”. That leave of self obsession takes a lifetime of development.

Instead you are a beautiful person with a nice chassis, good on you.

nick

U know I have to laugh at some of the morons who are posting on here. Now a little about me. I’m strait, I’m male, I’m confident, and Hell if anything I’m more of an alpha male. Now here is my take on this subject. It’s your life. Live it as you see fit., and fuck all the idiots. I mean really some of these douches lol do you see how narrow minded they are? Fuck them. They truely don’t matter worth a damn. Be proud of who you are. Celibrate who YOU are. It’s all of the differences that make us original, and make us unique. And make us ALL human together. .. there’s the view of a “man’s man” good luck.

Dakir

They still have a lot of manly features. Seems to me you would always be chasing what you could never have and acceptance – society hates different despite breaching it constantly how beautiful we all are and it is what is on the inside, etc etc etc. While every one of you hypocrites do the opposite. You don’t even teach your kids those values because by 8 all they dare about is their looks, brand name of their clothes and their hair cuts. Then they form groups – prettiest go on to be the most successful. The women claiming it had nothing to do with looks. The men do the same. You can’t be who you want. You become what society lets you be. We are merely reactions to other people all put together over the years.

Abbie Normal

This is just weird…they need to go see a shrink…

Monica

From the postings, I find astonishing to see in this age of information so much ignorance . I suppose stupid can not be fixed after all.

Instead of bashing and bullying the boys who would like to be be girls (or the girls who would like to be boys), we should try to provide them with as much support and understanding as possible. It is how they feel. They deserve a chance to a happy life.

IMO, if more would experience having their legs waxed, getting a good pedicure, wearing panties and skimpy shorts or skirts, the world might be a better place.

jane

I have a lot of friends who are taking pills/ hormones to transition, good for them, but i’ve notice the side effect it’s taking on their bodies- lethargic and change in personality. Taking all these pills will eventually be bad for you in the long run. Health should always come first, just saying.

Erin Fuller

I submit this comment to refute those who say that transgender women are not women at all how dare you make such a boast how dare you. Transgender women are women in the fact that what makes a woman a woman or a man a man lies not in the crotch or groin but in the heart and mind. Do not assume you know anything about the transsexual condition unless you your self has been through such a condition. It is a medical FACT that transgender women have female brain functioning in all aspects brain scans have shown this. The same is true fro male transsexuals they exhibit male brain patterns also shown in brain scans. gender and sex are two distinct aspects of the human condition so do not play that any of you know how to tell boy from girl male from female you know nothing but what everyone has been told that a penis is a male sex organ and a vagina is a female sex organ that is the main determinate for sex. Wrong it is not forget all you were told forget what the “bible” tells you its wrong medical science dictates what’s true what’s false what’s right what’s wrong use the internet its all out there for those willing to learn the truth.

http://www.twitter.com/stribs Robert S.

Sorry trans people that have to put up with so much ignorance and stupidity. Kudos to those who have taken the time and energy to respond in detail to people who have made very little effort to understand who you are as a fellow human being.